Fall in Love at First Sight with the Guru Praemio

I read somewhere once that the human eye recognizes functional design as inherently beautiful. This was in the context of why we find certain consumer products like the iPod attractive, but I like to think that the same goes with beautiful bicycles. I thought about this the first time I saw the Guru Praemio.

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It wasn’t in some romantic setting. We were on a showroom floor in Vegas last September, and the bike was bathed in fluorescent light. I like to think that I fell in love with function; that subconsciously, I recognized the Praemio’s slender, rounded titanium tubes as durable—besides the known strength of the metal, less paint means less chance of getting scratched. I imagine that my reptilian bike-rider-brain registered those pencil-thin seatstays as being ready to smooth the road; translated that taller head tube into the reassurance that I would be comfortable during long, weekend rides.

Maybe I saw these things. Maybe not. Either way, not unlike becoming infatuated with someone attractive I just met, I kept thinking about this bike for months, even though I knew very little about it. My interest in the Praemio was shallow, but I trusted that my eye had registered the potential for something more meaningful. When the opportunity to get a tester finally came in January, I leapt at it.

The Praemio has been in Guru’s lineup for the past eight years, and is the small Canadian brand’s all-around, recreational riding model, intended for completing centuries and other long rides. Guru is known for custom building with carbon, titanium, and steel; and here’s where the Praemio differs from most subjects of our infatuation: For relatively little effort, you can mold it into the version that’s just right for you. I tested the $4,700 version of the stock bike—not cheap, but for a mere $300 more, you get a fully custom frame. For another $50, you can opt for seven different dropouts for various wheel and braking systems. (There’s also the stiffer and racier Praemio R Disc available in stock or custom.) Other add-ons: choose your paint scheme (ours, pictured, would add $750 to the price), finish, or add fender mounts. Even in the stock version of the bike, tube sizes and stiffness are optimized to target a consistent ride across different sized bikes.

My tester came with smooth Ultegra shifting and reliable Ultegra braking—which came through in the clutch during the TD Five Boro Bike Tour in New York, a mass-start ride where I found myself surrounded by 35,000 other cyclists in nearly claustrophobic quarters. But most of my rides on the Praemio took place on the wide-open, endless country roads around my home in Pennsylvania. The bike rode like it looked like it would, smoothing minute imperfections, making the ride nearly silent on unmarred pavement. But when the pavement started to take on more character, the Praemio let the changing surface sing through in the form of pleasant, melodic vibrations. It dulled bigger bumps—wishbone-shaped seatstays, new in 2015, dissipate road shock as well as allow for up to 28mm tires in all frame sizes—but the ride quality is lively, not muted. I finished one 75-mile day that included 20 miles on dirt and gravel path, feeling fresh enough to just keep riding.

New in 2015, wishbone-shaped seatstays (left) allow for more tire clearance in smaller sizes, and add to compliance too. The small Canadian brand is known for its custom building in three materials: titanium, carbon, and steel (right).

Mitch Mandell

Being endurance-oriented, this isn’t a very stiff bike, and you can that tell by looking at the modest diameter of its rounded tubes. It’s a stable bike, holding its line at speed so well that during one Saturday morning ride, I kept finding myself riding one-handed in heavy crosswinds to check for the next turn on my iPhone. (This is also how I also learned that despite the bike’s stable handling, it is still quick and responsive enough for me to repeatedly duck around potholes when I’d look up and spot them at the last minute.) The Praemio doesn’t love being leaned over hard into fast turns, but you can coax it into that position for short bits. When you do, it tracks through its arc faithfully.

The Praemio builds its speed rather than leaps to attention under pedaling, but it does build speed quick. And it feels much lighter than its nominal weight (17.8 pounds for my size small test bike). Thus, it is fast. It hung right in there with the carbon race bikes during numerous playful attacks on some spirited lunch rides, and while I wouldn’t race it in a crit, that’s not the point of the Praemio.

Here is the point: I love looking at this bike, and I love riding it, and I’m not sure how much of the latter is a result of the former, but who cares when this bike makes me want to ride as much as I can? The Praemio inspires me, to plan weekend road rides to finally navigate the unfamiliar route to the famous donut shop that I’ve been meaning to visit all winter; to make the long cruise down to Philly by bike instead of sitting in traffic in my car. The first day I got the bike, it got me out the door for a lunch ride that I was about to tell myself I was too busy to make. The thought of riding it convinced me to schlep my stuff to NYC for a weekend for the Five Boro ride. And I had extra fun, dressing up in a bow tie, knee high socks, and leather lace-up SPD shoes—because my dapper-looking bike deserved a dapper partner.

So never apologize when you say, “I just like the way this bike looks.” If you love looking at your bike, you’ll love riding it, and you’ll ride it more. I like to believe that once in a while, when the eye beholds beauty, it’s beholding deeper qualities, too. Maybe I’m just a romantic. Or maybe, sometimes, the best stories do still start with love at first sight.

Gloria LiuContributing Writer, BicyclingGloria Liu is a writer-at-large, and formerly the features and gear editor at Bicycling.

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